FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Matt Bevin and his wife, Glenna, once tried to adopt an 11-year-old girl who lived in Kentucky.

They already had several children by then, and their family eventually would swell to include nine kids. But she would not be one of them.

The governor told a crowd in Frankfort Friday morning that he and his wife went through "crazy" amounts of training when they tried to adopt her, "writing checks every time we turned around," but ultimately were turned down.

"This girl never knew that we tried to adopt her," he said. "And it breaks my heart...We failed her. The system failed her."

The Bevins appeared Friday in Frankfort at where they and other government officials made impassioned requests for the public's help in their quest to revamp Kentucky's foster care and adoption system.

"There's a lot of red tape," the governor said at the "Open Hearts/Open Homes Summit to Save Our Children" event Friday. "We've got to rethink the entire process."

To do that, he hopes to unite the state government with churches, nonprofit organizations, would-be foster or adoptive families and other Kentuckians in a collective effort to help children across the commonwealth find loving, supportive homes.

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Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin speaks at the opening conference of "The Open Hearts/Open Homes Summit to Save Our Children," in Frankfort Ky. Friday, Mar. 10, 2017(Photo11: Timothy D. Easley, Special to the CJ)

"We have to do this together," said Vickie Yates Brown Glisson, secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. "Government cannot do it alone."

Glisson was frank at Friday's summit about the commonwealth's struggles when it comes to finding foster and "forever" homes for thousands of children in need.

"The system is not working," she said. Kentucky has to "completely disrupt" and rebuild it.

"These children need a stable home," she said. "They need someone to tuck them in."

Nearly 8,000 children are in out-of-home care in Kentucky, but the state has a little over 4,300 foster homes, according to data officials presented Friday. It's difficult to find foster families willing to take in certain children, such as siblings or kids with medically complex needs.

Those who spoke at the summit urged families to consider fostering or adopting a child in Kentucky and promised they would work to make that process easier and less discouraging. But there are other ways to help too. For example, concerned citizens can do something as simple as organizing a "duffel bag drive" to ensure children don't have to stuff their belongings into a trash bag whenever they switch homes.

What matters, Bevin said, is that Kentuckians - as well as his own administration - take action. In his recent State of the Commonwealth address, Bevin promised to hire a foster care and adoption "czar," and on Friday he said that soon he plans to announce a new hire who will take on that type of role.

"Their sole goal and sole purpose will be to find the absolute best path forward for every child in state custody. Every one," he said. "That is going to be this individual's every waking moment."